Many of you are aware that I’m an avid sports fan. Primarily I’m a hometown first type of spectator. One that believes his team is in it at all times. That is, of course, until the mathematical probabilities are set to impossible.
That all said, as a lifelong Buffalo Sabres and Buffalo Bills fan, I’ve had little in the past decade or so to look back upon favorably. While it appears things have certainly swung in a positive direction as far as the hockey team goes, with a passionate owner determined to win, despite the cost, the football team is and has been a test of patience for many years now.
I’m so fortunate to be born when I was, as I was able to fully enjoy the frenzy that the Bills of the late 80’s and early 90’s brought about. I don’t even reflect negatively at the 4 losses, as I would so happily accept that fate once again. A decade of being, at best, mediocre, is extremely difficult to digest. It’s for this reason that I feel genuinely sorry for those Bills fans, either born after or being too young to enjoy those truly golden days of old. But having experienced what a level of dominance can be like; I know that it can occur once again. Do we look like that type of team this very moment? No, of course not, not even close.
However, I believe that some of the proper decisions are being made, which hopefully will bring those days a more than welcome return to the city of Buffalo. Now I’m not sure if it’s the desperation for an idealized return to prominence, that’s clouding my rationale or not, but I can see a silver lining, and more important I see some hope. Although some questionable decisions have been made, which is an understatement to say the least, and although the fate of the franchise itself is of much debate, I think things are moving in the right direction.
So this all said, I figured I’d give a shot, trying to be as impartial as possible, at predicting how this season will turn. Not just for the Bills, but for the entire league. I’ll go game by game but won’t do scores. I’ll take some guesses; as to who’ll win the awards and probably a lot of other things as this process unfolds.
I figured the professionals that go through and do this each year are never close to being accurate; the most of them anyhow. So I thought I might as well take a stab at it myself. I do have to say that I’m not just a casual fan though. One of my degrees is in coaching and I’m very much, or at least have been, in tune with the comings and going, rule changes and what not of all that is the NFL. Now I’ve never considered myself an expert to any degree, but I feel fairly confident that my takes are at least as good as some of these “experts” and feel my “guesses” will be on par with how their prognostications typically turn out to be.
At the end of the season I’ll look back at my predictions and see how I did. I’m sure there’ll be a lot of things that will happen, where most will consider as having come, completely from out of left field. The league is steeped in parity, which is one of the reasons that drive its enthusiasm, but because of this parity, making predictions is especially difficult to do. This year, without a real offseason, as the CBA lasted way too long, it’ll be even harder to fairly assess.
Many of the experts out there are already saying that they expect the good teams from last season to repeat again this year. They cite familiarity of coaching staffs and returning players as their major reasons for the sentiments, and I can’t really say I disagree too much. But I’m interested in seeing how this all turns out, so with that said I’ll begin.
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